Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Heed the cry of the armed forces

Fighter pilot.' Whenever I introduced myself that way, while inservice and now out of it, I could always espy a sense of awe andadmiration.

Yet, I have forever regarded the infantry officer more than anyoneelse. For, I have been mesmerised by his mettle to commandunquestioned obedience from the men he led into battle when everyoneknew a likely death lurked round the bend.

But the soldier also knew that his officer would do his utmost toensure the soldier's safety, and thus reposed unwavering faith inhis leadership and followed him in the charge, hollering the warcry.

Infantry officers are moulded out of an extraordinary metal and theyform a rare breed. And warriors like them are the ones who makesoldiering the noble profession that it is. Where else will you findsubordinates ready to live and die for you?

Unlike this sod, the Union government does not apparently think insuch mushy terms about the image of its soldiers, sailors andairmen. Otherwise, it would not have compelled the three serviceschiefs to petition the defence minister to restore the existingparity with those from other central services, with respect to theSixth Central Pay Commission (SCPC) awards. (A section of the mediaregrettably painted this as whinging and blackmail by the defenceforces. Far from the truth. More than pay, what they are actuallypleading is for the restoration of status and honour trampledhitherto by successive governments. )

In response, the government has constituted a panel of three topcabinet ministers to address the discordant subjects (upgradelieutenant colonel to pay band 4, place lieutenant general in higheradministrative grade plus and restore pensionary benefits ofpersonnel below officer rank) highlighted by the chiefs.

The sitrep

The forces had earlier raised several disquieting anomalies in theSCPC recommendations, and sought equitable remuneration for the kindof toil they do day in, day out. The government tasked a committeeof secretaries to fix it. Given the composition of IAS officers inthe committee, only a nincompoop would have expected justice for theservicemen.

The committee should have conjured up adequate pecuniarycompensation for the posts in which the officers have to serve long,and also where the deficit of officers was most grave. But insteadof smoothening ruffled feathers, its prescription made more hacklesto rise. The fear of antagonists sabotaging the hope for obtaining afair deal had come true.

Worse, the government twisted the knife in at a time when the threeservices were fighting a rearguard battle to attract talentedcandidates and to stem the exit of middle-rung officers. Not a soulin the government, evidently, has grasped the acuteness of crisishobbling the armed forces. Nor has anyone attempted to fathom thedepth of their discontentment nor estimate the fallout of thepeacetime attrition.

Small wonder then that the services, which lumped the humiliation ofits systematic downgrading all these years, were forced to tell thenation that they have had enough. The high and mighty clearly hadnot heard of the idiom even a worm will turn.

Military vis-a-vis civil service: two universes

Forget the primary role of defending our national territory, watersand air space. Forget fighting the armed inimical elements in Jammu& Kashmir, the Northeast and elsewhere. Now the services arerequisitioned to do the salvage job, every day.

When the deluge ravaged Bihar, Assam, UP and Orissa recently, thearmy, navy and air force had to be marshalled to mount rescuemissions. The civil administration was conspicuous by its truancy,making one wonder why crores are spent on such slothful and corruptbodies, as the army will be SOSed ultimately. Mind you, these bodiesare headed by IAS officers, the lot mainly responsible for therotten state of governance in this country.

Not just natural disasters; they are summoned when the police bungletoo. When a party of the anti-Naxal force Greyhounds was ambushed atChitrakonda in the hills of Malkangiri district of Orissa on June29, while boating in a reservoir, as the escape routes were heavilymined, the rescue operations had to be supported by air in marginalweather. The air effort and the team of 30 divers were provided byEastern Naval Command headquartered at Visakhapatnam [Images].

Let me recall a recent newsbrief in a mainstream English daily as aprimer to give you a peek into the contrastive ethos of the militaryand civilian universes. The vice chief of naval staff lamented thatwhen the navy was called in for rescue and relief in inundated partsof Bihar, formal orders did not come in immediately from thegovernment, and the financial head of the ministry of defencerefused to release funds, forcing the navy to use its non-publicfunds to rush relief teams.

For the babu, the written order dripping officialese is gospel, doesnot matter if such devotion leads to the drowning of hundreds ofcitizens!

The serviceman could be excused if he thought that he was being usedby the politicians and bureaucrats to conceal their incompetence andto clean up the accumulated mess excreted by their rank misrule.

The army, given the emasculation of the state police, will continueto be employed for internal security -- counter-terrorism, andbefore long it will be tasked to crush the subnationalist forces andinsurrectionists like the Maoists. With body bags set to become aneveryday sight, how many parents will be willing to send their sonsto this death trap?

Since the very idea of India is at stake, both the polity and policymavens need to put heads together to pre-empt the portent. But who,ensconced in ivory towers, cares?

The holy warrant of precedence

Why is the State unconscionably shoving its boots on the face of themilitary? What explains its downhill journey in the warrant ofprecedence?

Lately, in an article, retired Lt Gen Harwant Singh cited why thedefence officers were being hard-bone-by. The bureaucracy, takingadvantage of the Congress party's detestation of the military, keptthe pot stirred by raising the odds of a military coup, and workedup this fear to emasculate the status of the top echelon, at thecost of the nation's overall strategic disadvantage.

A committee of secretaries revises the warrant of precedenceperiodically. Gen Harwant Singh writes that as the chief of defencestaff in 1981, Gen O P Malhotra raised the issue of downgrading ofservice officers in the warrant of precedence (this has directbearing on the pay).

In response, the committee of secretaries recorded, 'Militaryofficers were placed unduly high in the old warrant of precedence,presumably as it was considered essential for officers of an army ofoccupation to be given special status and authority.' Mind you, itis not Mirwaiz Umar Farooq but the bureaucrats that called theIndian Army [Images] as an army of occupation!

Of course, Gen Malhotra riposted that the pliant colonialbureaucracy (civil servants and police) was the tool of oppressionwielded by the Raj to quell the freedom movement, not the army. Infact, the strike of naval ratings in Bombay on February 18, 1946,that spread to major cities was what signalled to the British thatit was time to pack their bags and decamp.

Gen Harwant Singh rightly concluded that it was highly malicious foranyone to decry the Indian Army as an army of occupation.

Once the political class colluded with the bureaucracy, there was nostopping the descent down the warrant of precedence. Perhaps themandarins still see the military as an army of occupation, whichshould explain why they are pulling out all the stops to belittleit. Hence their effort to further throttle the services through theSCPC.

Course of action

When I was commissioned into the IAF in 1984, the air force pilothad the highest starting pay among the central government Class Iofficers. (That is history; the Book has been overwritten severaltimes.)

Smitten by aircraft, bewitched by flying, fascinated by the frissonof foiling gravity, I joined the IAF. The smell of adventure in theair, the prestige associated with the uniform and the decent qualityof life it offered were simply inciting appetisers. Oddly, till Iwas handed my first pay packet, after prevailing three rigorousyears at the National Defence Academy and another exacting year atthe Air Force Academy, I did not know what my starting pay would be!

Will I embrace the IAF again? I doubt. Gone are those days ofchasing quixotic idealism to quench an inner itch. Now lads want toknow how much their sweat will swell the bank account. Unlessmilitary service is made attractive, few will want to join it.Period.

A decade back, an IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre, a friend, toldme he had brought out a paper on the need for officers both militaryand civilian to bury the hatchet, complement each other, and worktogether for the larger cause of nation-building instead of cuttingthe other down to size. Although his supremacist brethren laughedhis treatise out of court, I ditto his standpoint.

Though carved out of the same governmental womb, the professions ofarms and file-pushing are as different, alas as cold to each other,as the Ambani brothers. So, in the long run, the answer lies indelinking both the pay and stature of the armed forces from theircivilian counterparts.

As the nature of jobs, career prospects, hierarchy, attributes,hardships and workplaces are poles apart, the very precept of interse parity sounds disjointed. Actually it is preposterous to liken amajor general with 33 years of service to a joint secretary having17 years under his belt.

The pyramidal promotion-prospects of the forces and everyone-makes-it framework of the civil services are beyond comparison. Therefore,prudence suggests that instead of indulging in structural tinkeringthrough pay commissions, it makes sense to have a separate paycommission for the defence forces. That is the only durable solution.

As for now, the recently convened ministerial panel must heed thecry of the armed forces and reinstate its stolen status andbenefits. It is their due. High morale is the best known forcemultiplier.